When TV huckster Kevin Trudeau stood in a packed federal courtroom to make one final sales pitch Monday, he hardly resembled the tanned, dapper figure seen hawking miracle diets and natural cancer cures on so many late-night infomercials. After spending four months in jail for contempt of court, Trudeau's trademark jet black coif was thin and gray. His usual tailored suit was replaced by rumpled orange jail clothes. Even his typical air of defiance had turned to...

Seattle resident Dave Churchman had settled in for a little late-night cable business news last month when he noticed a familiar face flickering on his TV, one he thought he wouldn't see for a long time. Churchman sat up and watched in disbelief as Kevin Trudeau, the dapper, effusive pitchman who had just been sentenced in Chicago to 10 years in prison for lying in an infomercial about his weight-loss book, held up a different book called "Free Money 'They' Don't Want You to Know About.

Kevin Trudeau, who spent the last week at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, was warned by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman that he could face perjury charges 'if there are any other assets that are discovered or turned up ... or that I find you control.' A federal judge agreed to release TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau from jail Monday after the infomercial king testified under oath that he had divulged all his assets to the government. Trudeau, who spent the past...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau, who was convicted last year of criminal contempt for exaggerating the contents of his weight-loss book in infomercials, was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison. Trudeau, 51, who has been held in federal custody since his conviction in November, will also have five years of supervised release after serving his sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman said. "He is deceitful to the very core, and that type of...

Chicago-based TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau has made a fortune marketing himself as a truth teller who reveals secrets that the rich and powerful want to keep from the public. Hawking everything from financial advice to weight-loss solutions, the smooth-talking Trudeau managed for more than a decade to stay one step ahead of the government's efforts to silence him, all the while amassing a cultlike following as federal regulators hounded him in court and imposed a...

Federal prosecutors want jailed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for repeatedly defying court orders to pay a whopping $37 million fine. With Trudeau scheduled to be sentenced on Monday, prosecutors ripped the infomercial king in a court filing for what they called his “brazen defiance” of federal judges in Chicago over the last decade and accused him of preying on the sick, the poor and the insecure over three...

By Jeff Coen, Tribune reporter Infomercial king Kevin Trudeau may think he can sell snow to Eskimos, but he was unable to persuade a federal judge Wednesday not to sentence him to time behind bars for bombarding the judge's e-mail account with messages from supporters last week. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman sentenced the TV pitchman to 30 days in custody and ordered him to return to court Thursday to turn himself in to U.S. marshals. Trudeau's...

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The ostentatious contents of the California home of former TV pitchman and convicted fraudster Kevin Trudeau go on sale on Friday to pay a $38 million judgment over false promises he made in a weight-loss book, according to an estate sale listing. Trudeau has battled federal regulators for years over his marketing of various products to combat cancer, hair loss, memory loss and obesity in infomercials that were ubiquitous on late-night television...

When smarmy and nationally known TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau stands before a federal judge Thursday to begin serving his 30-day sentence for contempt of court, here's an idea. He should dress up in a bright white suit and carry a trampoline into court, then bounce up and down before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman. "I'm not depressed! Really I'm not," he could shout. "I'm happy, Your Honor, because I know the secrets that ‘THEY' don't want...

Jailed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau told a federal judge Thursday he's willing to be waterboarded to prove that he's not hiding vast sums of money overseas to avoid paying a whopping $37 million fine. Looking haggard after nearly three months behind bars, the normally well-coiffed Trudeau seemed to be only half-joking when he told U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman he'd gladly submit to the controversial torture technique if it led to his release. “I desperately...

Kevin Trudeau, an infomercial personality who touted get-rich-quick schemes in television commercials and on the Internet, agreed to settle a lawsuit with Illinois and seven other states Tuesday by paying $185,000 and changing the way members of his enterprise recruit. Under the settlement, Trudeau, a convicted felon who served two years in prison for credit-card fraud in the early 1990s, will be allowed to market his Nutrition for Life products, but only in accordance with a consent decree he signed.

Jailed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau implored a federal judge Thursday to end contempt-of-court sanctions against him, saying he would gladly pay the multimillion-dollar fine for running a series of fraudulent infomercials if only he had any money. "My freedom is more important to me than any amount of money," an exasperated, rumpled-looking Trudeau told U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman. "If I had it, I would turn it over today. I do not want to spend another hour...

Infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau came to court Thursday dressed casually in bluejeans, a sign he expected to be jailed for ticking off a judge when supporters bombarded the judge with hundreds of e-mails. But he won at least a temporary reprieve from jail Thursday when the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to let him remain free while it quickly decides his appeal of his contempt citation and 30-day sentence. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, miffed...

Jailed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau implored a federal judge today to end contempt-of-court sanctions against him, saying he would gladly pay the multimillion fine for running a series of fraudulent infomercials if only he had any money. “My freedom is more important to me than any amount of money,” an exasperated, rumpled-looking Trudeau told U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman. “If I had it, I would turn it over today. I do not want to spend another hour incarcerated.” But...

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is expanding his lakefront spread in Highland Park, recently paying $1.25 million for a 4,646-square-foot house on slightly more than 1 acre in front of his mansion. The rocker paid $6.8 million in 2003 for his 18-room, 9,606-square-foot Normandy chateau-style mansion on more than 6 acres, which earlier had been listed for $11.9 million. The seven-bedroom mansion was designed by David Adler. Records show an Illinois...

Call it a federal court version of that classic "Animal House" sanction, double-secret probation. A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday ordered TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau jailed for once again failing to come clean about his assets, but the rub was that Trudeau was already behind bars following his conviction in a separate federal courtroom last week for criminal contempt of court. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman laid into the best-selling author and motivational...